Eddie Boggs left lasting mark as musician, educator

Eddie Boggs’ voice carried him from the hills of his native Kentucky to stages nationwide, but it was his heart and humor that endeared him to nearly everyone he met.

The folk musician and retired educator died Jan. 9 in Sylvania after an eight-month battle with cancer. He was 68.

Eddie Boggs was born in 1945 in Soldier, Ky. Toledo Free Press photo and cover photo by Sarah Ottney

Boggs moved to Northwest Ohio more than 40 years ago, sharing the stage with dozens of local musicians, including Kerry Patrick Clark, Pat Dailey and Diane Scribner. He performed regularly at Put-in-Bay and brushed shoulders with national acts like Lee Greenwood, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary, Blood, Sweat & Tears, The Mamas and the Papas and more. He also toured with The New Christy Minstrels.

“Music is something I love,” Boggs told Toledo Free Press in August. “The rewards from it are just beyond description. The people you meet, the places you travel to are phenomenal.”

Boggs was born in rural Soldier, Ky., on Aug. 10, 1945, the youngest of six children of a brick factory laborer and a stay-at-home mom.

“Let’s just say we didn’t know how poor we were,” his oldest brother Carl Boggs of Memphis, Tenn., said, laughing. “But we had a good life.”

Eddie started singing at a young age, joining his parents and three of his siblings in a family singing group that performed at churches and venues across several counties.

“He was a constant entertainer and he was always smiling,” Carl said. “Eddie was always the bright place, the shining star.”

He later learned to play instruments, including piano, guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin and harmonica.

“He had raw talent but really developed it. He was a self-made musician,” Carl said. “I guess it was just a gift that God gave him that he really fully appreciated and used to the utmost benefit.”

The family moved to Ohio when Boggs was a teen. A counselor told him he wasn’t smart enough for college, but Boggs enrolled anyway, taking classes at The Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus during the day while working nights at a steel mill. He went on to earn two master’s degrees from the University of Toledo and started coursework toward a Ph.D.

In 1997, Boggs penned a commercial jingle, “Keep Jeep In Toledo,” considered to be one of the motivating factors for Chrysler’s decision to keep Jeep production in Toledo. Boggs also founded the Lake Erie West Hall of Fame for the Performing Arts and was active with charity projects, including hosting an annual holiday variety show that raised more than $250,000.

Boggs seemed to be in perfect health until a lump discovered on his neck led to a diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in May. Doctors pronounced him cancer-free in November, but just weeks later, scans showed the cancer was back. Already weakened from months of chemotherapy, Boggs began another round of treatments and entered hospice soon after.

“Eddie never drank, never smoked. The strongest thing he ever drank was Dr Pepper,” Carl said. “That’s kind of what shocked us all. Just from being a picture of health to eight months later, it’s just unbelievable. But that’s life.”

“A life of song.” That’s how church leader Thayer Salisbury of Flanders Road Church of Christ described Boggs’ life during his funeral Jan. 13.

Boggs always put others before himself and “had an incredible ability to stand up for what he believed without making anybody mad,” Salisbury said.

His faith and humility allowed him to stay grounded, he added.

“One of the greatest Eddie Boggs quotes of all time was something I heard him say in various forms, several times: ‘Every time I perform, I’m aware that there may be someone in the audience who could sing it or play it better than I,’” Salisbury said.

“[He was] the most honorable person I ever met,” said Randy Sparks, founder of The New Christy Minstrels, in an email to Toledo Free Press. “Eddie Boggs lived every day of his bigger-than-life presence on Earth to the fullest, and there never was a better human being.”

In 1991, Boggs married his wife Chris, who had two young daughters, Sara Roemer and Grace Barton. Eddie and Chris later welcomed another daughter, Allison Boggs.

“He would always call us his daughters; he never separated it out like that,” Roemer said. “I think that’s just an added testament to him. We were his from the beginning.”

“He told us he fulfilled everything he wanted to accomplish in life,” Barton added. “And that was having three daughters be grown and sisters and happy.”

Connection to kids

Boggs retired in 2007 after 37 years as a teacher and school counselor, most recently at Timberstone Junior High School in Sylvania.

Boggs enjoyed an easy rapport with students, former colleagues said.

“I think it’s because he was still kind of a kid himself,” said Timberstone science teacher Diane Friedman. “He loved the practical jokes.”

Rose Gaiffe, who worked with Boggs as a guidance counselor, said he was a master at identifying students in need.

“I watched Eddie perform miracles every day with adolescents who needed a smile, a song, a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on or just a safe place to sit and rock,” Gaiffe wrote in an email. “He went to the cafeteria for all three lunch periods every day, monitored lunch recesses and got to know the kids by playing ‘Horse,’ or volleyball or passing on the goofiest knock-knock joke.”

Boggs often used music to relate to kids, said retired Timberstone principal Jack Smith.

“It was not unusual to walk past Eddie’s office and hear him singing to and with a student,” Smith said. “Music opened doors for Eddie with students that may not have been opened otherwise.”

Gail Brenner, an eighth-grade math teacher at Timberstone, remembers Boggs stopping by the homes of chronically truant students to personally make sure they were awake and coming to school.

“That was the kind of person he was,” Brenner said. “He was so dedicated to the kids. And he cared about the whole kid — their background, where they came from, what struggles they had at home — and became a parent to a lot of kids who really didn’t have parents. He took kids under his wing and he was always the life force.”

He was also popular with fellow teachers, composing and performing personalized songs for the retirees at each year’s retirement party.

Former student Holly Williams of Toledo said she and Boggs bonded over poetry and their mutual love of playing the fiddle.

“For years I offered to teach him ‘The Devil Went Down to Georgia’ and he would always tell me his fingers didn’t move that fast. Whenever he did the festivals in Sylvania I would heckle him and ask him to play that song. He’d laugh and tell me to pick something he could play,” Williams said. “One year he told me he figured out how to play it. We walked over to a case, but he did not pull out a fiddle. Instead he pulled out a cassette recorder. He pushed play and it was Charlie Daniels. He said that was the only way he could play that song.”

“He always had an open door for the kids, and I believe they felt they could walk into his office any time and talk to him about anything and find a sympathetic ear,” Thompson said. “He did so much to make this little corner of the globe a better place.”

Clark and Scribner both met Boggs as students. Both joined the guitar club he offered and later started performing with him at regional events.

“He really took me under his wing and mentored me from an entertainment perspective,” Clark said. “He was an amazing human being.”

“He had the uncanny ability of performing or teaching to a group of people and making each person feel as if they were the most important person in the room,” Scribner said.

Dailey met Boggs at Put-in-Bay, where both performed for years.

“He was the kind of guy who when he talked to you and asked a question, you knew he would listen and actually wanted to know the answer,” Dailey said. “I thought he was one of the nicest fellows I ever met.”

‘Uniquely generous’

On Jan. 12, Rep. Marcy Kaptur presented his family with a flag that had flown over the Capitol in Washington, D.C. On Jan. 14, she offered a tribute to Boggs.

“Eddie was a man held in particular affection by the thousands of people whose lives he touched so positively,” Kaptur said in remarks to the House of Representatives. “Eddie’s music will always play in our hearts. He lifted us to be a better and more caring people.”

During a phone call with Toledo Free Press on Jan. 15, Kaptur recalled Boggs leading student trips to Washington, D.C., where he would stop to sing and play guitar outside the Capitol.

“It just brightened the Capitol whenever he was here,” Kaptur said. “He was like a strolling minstrel. He would sing patriotic songs and American songs and he shared his talents so freely and so gently.

“He was uniquely gifted and he was uniquely generous,” Kaptur added. “He used his music to entertain, mobilize and uplift. He really shared his talent broadly. I always called him the music man. How many of us in our lifetime meet someone like that? You don’t meet many people like that in your lifetime.”

Sylvania group seeks funds for school athletic facilities

The Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation is planning a $6.5 million renovation for the athletic facilities of five Sylvania schools. The foundation’s list includes Northview and Southview High Schools and Arbor Hills, McCord and Timberstone junior high schools.

The Foundation plans to raise $4.5 million in private funds to finish the renovations and is seeking an additional $2 million to establish an endowment fund for Sylvania’s athletic and extracurricular activities. The tentative timetable is to begin building in 2012 and complete the facilities in the winter of 2013.

“We have a tremendous group of individuals including community leaders, parents and business professionals that are committed to getting this done,” Superintendent Brad Rieger said. “They buy into the vision that we really are building the next generation of champions. Facilities are really just a platform to let kids shine in different ways. These are challenging times, but we are a committed group and we are ready to get it done.”

John Ross, foundation board chairman, said people in Sylvania know how important education is.

“They know how important it is to support schools and support kids. We are talking about a multigenerational impact for our community.

“This project is about kids. There are over 8,000 kids in Sylvania schools and to know that they will have an opportunity to compete, play and participate in great schools with great athletic facilities is really exciting.”

What does $6.5 million buy?

Northview will add new field turf (for football and soccer), bleachers (for baseball, football and soccer) and field lights (for baseball and football). The school will also add an eight-lane, all-weather track-and-field events area, a ticket booth and a facility for concessions and restrooms.

Southview will add new field turf, bleachers, home stands and a press box for the football field, as well as portable stands for the band and a facility for concessions and restrooms. Southview also will add new bleachers for baseball and softball and additional soccer seating.

Northview and Southview will also add 32-foot scoreboards, which include a 10-foot-by-17-foot video screen and five different spaces to sell advertisements.

Arbor Hills and McCord will have their football fields upgraded to include irrigation and drainage as well as lights, an electronic scoreboard, a press box and an eight-lane track. Timberstone will receive mounding and screening for wind protection and fencing.

Challenges

Among the major problems with the schools’ current arrangement is Northview having to share its football field with Southview. Although Southview has a field, it is limited to freshman and junior varsity play due to a small bleacher area.

“Right now the issue is we have both of our varsity football teams playing at one field,” Rieger said. “There are significant scheduling and logistical issues. There are obviously issues with Northview wanting their own place and Southview wanting their own place but it’s even beyond that. We want separate facilities so we can expand the utilization into different activities, sports and community organizations.”

A rendering of the proposed Sylvania Northview High School football field and stadium.

The foundation plans to allow such organizations as Lourdes College, Sylvania Recreation and the Catholic Youth Organization youth tournament to use the facilities. Foundation Executive Director Jeanette Hrovatich said they hope to draw a national tournament to their facilities in the future.

Reaching private donors

To fund the $6.5 million project, the foundation is turning to private donors. Although the process is described as being at “the ground level,” the foundation’s goal is to raise $1 million during September. Hrovatich said the foundation is in discussions with about 40 donors.

“When you look across the country, I see no one else attempting to do what we are doing in a district with two public high schools to raise private money to help keep these extracurriculars available for kids,” Ross said. “This is cutting-edge. Things are going to change in how schools are financed. The time to involve the private sector into this has come. It is going to be very successful and a new way to look at things.”

The idea for turning to private donors came in 2005 when the board for Sylvania Schools began to look at rebuilding some of its facilities. At that time, it determined that taxpayers were growing weary of increased taxes and decided that private funding would be the best course of action. It created the Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation in November 2005 to begin the process of raising private funds for athletics, hoping it would transition to continual tax levy support that would go directly to classrooms.

“I got a sense, along with the community, that for us to accomplish some things with our outdoor facilities we needed to go a different way with a different approach,” Rieger said. “That’s when this idea of raising money in a private fashion, for seeking corporate and individual donors to fund the enhancements, really germinated.”

To help raise $6.5 million, the foundation created an Advancement Council consisting of 42 community volunteers whose sole goal is to focus on the fundraising aspects and donor development. Among those volunteers is Jim Findlay, retired from his position as president of Impact Products, who serves as one of the council’s three honorary chairmen along with Rieger and Rick Stansley, chairman of the board of Innovation Enterprises, the University of Toledo’s economic development arm.

“Sylvania is a great area,” Findlay said. “We have great hospitals, schools and industry. I’m very interested in academics but I’m extremely interested in sports because it builds character and principles. It’s hard for me not to be a part of something that’s for the youth. It’s hard for me to say no.”

A rendering of the proposed Sylvania Southview High School athletic complex.

Findlay, who has experience as a youth basketball coach and mentor, assisted at the University of Toledo in finding donors for the Savage Arena renovations. He is retired from his position as president of Impact Products.

“We would like to give everybody in the Sylvania area an opportunity to be a part of this,” Findlay said. “That’s what we are trying to do — get the industry and residents to be a part of this school system. People will move into this area because we have great schools and great facilities. This will be great for the community.”

The foundation has formed a women’s initiative group, “Girls with Goals” (GWG), which is attempting to raise money for the facilities. So far GWG, which is still accepting new members, consists of 25 women from the Sylvania community. Its next meeting is at 6 p.m. Aug. 17 at the Chandler Café, 5648 N. Main St. in Sylvania.

How to give to Sylvania Athletics

To donate and help the Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation raise money for Northview and Southview high schools, as well as Arbor Hills, McCord and Timberstone junior high schools, visit www.SupportSylvaniaAthletics.com (web site will be live soon). The website offers options to donate through PayPal or by sending in a pledge card, which can be printed from a PDF online. You can also contact Hrovatich at (419) 824-8656. The foundation accepts donations of any amount; donation levels from as low as $10,000 and as high as $5 million include varying rewards and recognition.

Foundation: Violations will not deter effort

The Sylvania Schools Athletic Foundation’s renewal project faced a scare when it learned Aug. 5 that Northview and Southview had received sanctions from the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) on its football programs because of recruiting violations. With the sanctions occurring while they were in conversations with donors, there was some worry that they may have negatively impacted some donors’ decisions about giving.

“It was a concern because sometimes people don’t understand the nature of everything that happens in a district or a community but we have gotten a really great response,” said Foundation Executive Director Jeanette Hrovatich said. “We continue to meet with people this week and next week. We are excited by the opportunity to continue to work on this project.”

Among the violations, Northview Athletic Director Chris Irwin was found to have violated an OHSAA bylaw when he gave new head coach Marek Moldawsky Jr. a list of eighth grade students from the three Sylvania junior high schools so he could contact them and try to keep them at Northview. The OHSAA reprimanded Irwin.

At Southview, head coach Jim Mayzes was found to have violated an OHSAA bylaw when he inquired where a student would go to high school while at McCord Junior High School. Southview was placed on a two-year probation and was fined $500.

“It did involve recruiting but it was within the context of Sylvania,” Superintendent Brad Rieger said. “We weren’t recruiting kids from Whitmer, Springfield or Bedford. It stems from our coaches that are very passionate about their programs and want kids to experience the great things that are happening at their programs. I want that in coaches, but they might have been a bit overzealous with how they acted.

“It was inappropriate. We will learn from it and get some training in place to make sure the expectations are spelled out clearly for everyone.”

Despite the violations, the foundation sees the upcoming renewal project as a good way to bounce back and make up for the athletic department’s mistakes.

“Anytime something negative or bad happens you can use that opportunity to grow from it and that’s what we are going to do,” Rieger said. “This new project is about creating projects for kids and building champions.”